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Bill O'Brien knows they tell the story, better than any hyperbole could, of why Penn State is still looking for its first win: When his offense has had its best chances to score, it has been at its worst when it comes to production.

So as the Nittany Lions prepare to face Navy on Saturday at Beaver Stadium, they're doing so with an eye toward getting better when they're knocking on the end zone's proverbial door.

When his team gets inside the opponent's 20-yard line, he points out, they need to jog back to the sideline with more points than they've gotten from such trips so far this season.

"Wherever I've been, we've always prided ourselves on being a good red zone team," O'Brien said shrugging. "So we're going to spend a lot of time on that this week and hopefully we'll see improvement."

Red zone success - or lack thereof - was a major topic of discussion after the 17-16 loss to Virginia last Saturday, and it spilled into O'Brien's weekly teleconference. And for good reason. The Nittany Lions have managed just 24 points off of their seven trips inside the red zone this season. They're averaging just about 2.2 yards per play there, and that's with a solid start for their red zone offense.

The red zone, for the offense, might as well have been a dead zone against Virginia.

Against the Cavaliers, Penn State came away with points on just two of five trips inside the red zone, a pitiful outcome for a team that lost by just one point.

A delay of game penalty killed one drive. Two ended in missed field goals. On 10 rushing plays inside the 20, the Nittany Lions had just one rush of better than two yards.

Overall, O'Brien called nine rushing plays and six passes in the red zone, and he lamented that he didn't take a few more shots into the end zone.

"From the 20 to the 15, you've got a chance to take a shot in the end zone. Maybe, we do that a little bit more," O'Brien said. "There are some calls I would take back and some things I want to try to improve on this week, no question about it."

Quarterback Matt McGloin attributed the lack of red zone success against the Cavaliers to some of the same maladies that led to the second-half struggles in the opening-day loss to Ohio. Finishing off drives. The need for even more practice work against the defense they might see in the red zone and the plays they may choose to run.

But O'Brien's plan to perhaps shrink the playbook didn't necessarily sit well with his quarterback, who would like to see another part of playing in the red zone become leaner. McGloin said the length of the play calls - the sideline shuttles two plays in per huddle, which McGloin calls, then monitors the motion of the receivers and the check downs at the line of scrimmage - has led the offense to rush itself when it needs to be at its most precise.

"It's tough on us because the play calls are so long," he said. "There are just a lot of alerts and things like that. Sometimes, I think the best thing for the team would be to shorten the calls but keep the same plays."

O'Brien agreed, saying that shortening the play call and making things simpler would benefit the offense and help McGloin get the offense into the proper play.

But he added that once that process is cleaned up, there's still a matter of executing the plays better than the team has done to this point.

Contact the writer: dcollins@timesshamrock.com

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